Inquirer City Hall Staff

Mayor Nutter's budget director, Steve Agostini, is leaving the administration at the end of the month to take a Washington job as chief financial officer for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Agostini is the third signficiant Nutter aide in the last 10 days to announce a departure.

Press secretary Doug Oliver intends to leave in October for a senior vice president position at the Philadelphia Gas Works. And MaryAnn Tierney, the city's director of emergency operations, is headed to a regional post with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Maybe the departures are an indication of an improving economy?

Mayor Nutter could not be immediately reached for comment. He is on a two-week vacation in Mexico.

Here is the press release regarding Agostini:

Philadelphia, August 11, 2010- Today, Mayor Michael A. Nutter announced the departure of City Budget Director Stephen J. Agostini, who has accepted a new position as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Agostini will leave his current post on August 27, 2010 to assume his new position at OPM, the central human resources agency for the Federal Government.

As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Agostini will advise the Office of Personnel Management Director on the Agency's integrated financial management services, modernization of financial systems, business processes, strategic budget planning and support activities. Mr. Agostini will also oversee the preparation of financial statements covering OPM operations, as well as the government-wide retirement, health benefits and life insurance programs, totaling more than $856 billion in assets. Mr. Agostini will assume his new position on August 30, 2010.

As the City’s Budget Director, Mr. Agostini led the development of the FY2009 Budget and FY2009-FY2013 Five-Year Financial Plan. As a result of the global recession, he led efforts to revise and rebalance that plan to address a $1.035 billion shortfall. He also led efforts to revise the FY2010 Budget and FY10-FY14 Five-Year Financial Plan to close an additional $1.3 billion shortfall and revised the FY2011 Budget and FY2011-2015 Five Year Financial Plan to address a $150 million budget gap that resulted from the ongoing recession. During his tenure Mr. Agostini was instrumental in the complete overhaul of the Board of Revision of Taxes’ (BRT) proposed Actual Value models and as the City’s Recovery Officer, Mr. Agostini was responsible for oversight and quarterly reporting to the Mayor and the Federal Recovery Office on the City's disposition of $248 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding.

“Steve saw us through the worst recession since the Great Depression with skill and focus,” said Mayor Nutter. I always appreciated his insight, flexibility and commitment to fiscal integrity. His departure is certainly a loss for the City of Philadelphia but this is an incredible personal opportunity and I'm sure his great work here raised his profile such that OPM realized he would be great for them. I'm proud of him, grateful for his commitment to Philadelphia and I wish him all the best in his new position. It certainly helps to have friends in Washington, D.C."

"Steve has done some great work in very difficult circumstances,” said City Finance Director Rob Dubow. “OPM is very lucky to be getting him.”

“I would like to thank Mayor Nutter for giving me the unique opportunity to assist him over the last two and a half years as we endeavored to responsibly and successfully guide the City of Philadelphia through an incomparable and unprecedented global financial and economic crisis,” said Stephen Agostini. “It has been quite an honor working with Clay Armbrister, Rob Dubow and the excellent team in Finance as we sought to address the almost daily challenges the City faced as the impacts of the economic crisis unfolded. I will miss working with my very talented Philadelphia colleagues, the Deputy Mayors, Cabinet members, Commissioners, and staff who have helped to make this a memorable and incredible experience. Finally, it’s been an extraordinary honor to work alongside the exceptional and extremely dedicated staff in the City’s Office of Budget and Performance Evaluation. This group embodies, through their careful, tireless and at times thankless daily stewardship of the City’s resources, the qualities that make public service so noteworthy and important. While I’ll miss Philadelphia and the many friends I have gained here, I’m excited by the prospect of new challenges as the Chief Financial Officer for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and look forward to joining an excellent and experienced team that Director John Berry has assembled.”